Book Review | Nails: The Story of the Modern Manicure with Nail Art by Suzanne E. Shapiro and a GIVEAWAY for the Limited Edition OPI–Switchboard Starlet!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

I have always been a big fan of the HISTORY channel and when I received an opportunity to review a book about the history of the modern manicure, it was like the stars aligned and I could not wait to get my nail art nerd learning cap on! Nails: The Story of the Modern Manicure by Suzanne E. Shapiro ($32.95) was a truly enjoyable and educational read! First of all, I did not realize how closely the economy influenced everything from colours to nail polish names or how EARLY on in history nail art was present!

In honour of this book and its heroines, OPI created 1000 bottles of the colour Switchboard Starlet, a gorgeous bright orange-red jelly, that I used to create this floral “pond manicure”. I’ll teach you all how to recreate this 3D look for yourselves and perhaps a bottle of Switchboard Starlet of your own!

The above is an advertisement from Shiseido, a company that was founded in the 19th century and is from 1932 when red nails were still a symbol of defiance and not fully acceptable by all social standards.

I just loved reading about Chinese “nail guards” as they symbolized an individual’s social standing i.e “I don’t have to perform any manual labour”.

Red nails took a long time to be fully accepted and truth be told, they still make quite the statement when worn alone. In the mid 20th century, product advertisements started using red manicured nails as it was established that products looked BETTER when advertised with a bright red polish!

I never noticed that the Evil Queen had red nails with white French tips! The same manicure that is on the front cover of this book!

Japanese nail art is absolutely out of this world and is personally a little bit much for me, but nail art has exploded in the last 5 years in North America and celebrities are constantly asking for nail art and glamming up their nails with more than just straight polish.

To create this pond manicure for yourself, you need a jelly polish just like OPI-Switchboard Starlet and all you need to do is paint flowers, dots or hearts IN BETWEEN each layer of polish. I did two or three flowers per coat and it helps if you have a little bit of overlap between the flowers. Make sure you wait for the white to dry FULLY before applying the next coat of polish because the last thing you want is smearing! I have 4 very thing coats as for once with a manicure, you WANT things to be a little see-through!

And now for the giveaway! You must be 18 years or older to enter and I will make this giveaway open internationally! All I ask is that you please don’t be one of those people that follows and unfollows for giveaways. I am pretty good at keeping track and have caught certain people who do it. Thank you for reading and good luck!